Gaius Publius, What Sanders Can Accomplish by Not Acting. The blogger known as Gaius Publius (the blog is “Down With Tyranny”) has had a series of posts in support of Bernie Sanders that have been picked up at Naked Capitalism. I don’t like the fact that Sanders is running as a Democrat, and I’m sympathetic with the argument (made well by Margaret Kimberley of Black Agenda Report in this Counterpunch podcast interview) that Sanders will thereby be acting as a “sheepdog” bringing left-ish Democrats into the fold and eventually to vote for Hillary or whoever the nominee is). But I liked this post, which suggests that Bernie could get some traction by promising not to do a bunch of things that Obama has done: push for horrible “trade” deals like the TPP; aim for dismantling or privatizing Social Security; extend tax breaks for the rich; etc. etc. And GP asks us to think of all the time activists wouldn’t then have to spend fighting such efforts. Our columnist Jerry Friedman will have an “Economy in Numbers” piece in our Nov/Dec issue about Sanders’ economic policies.

Social Europe, Jeremy Corbyn’s Speech On The EU Referendum. More sensible talk from the new Labour Party leader. Attempts in the UK press to undermine Corbyn reached a low when the Sunday Express had this dire report (via HuffPo Uk): Jeremy Corbyn’s Great Great Grandfather Mismanaged A Victorian Workhouse, Sunday Express Claims. Bernie Sanders doesn’t have it so bad; here the New York Times annoyed Bernie fans with an online piece about the few times Bernie had been mentioned in the Times before he was a public figure, starting with coming in 15th in a high school running race (1956: Bernie Sanders, Running Hard). Besides the triviality and condescension, the original version of the article had young Bernie coming in dead last, when in fact he was just the last among those ranked to get their names in the paper; his time was apparently pretty good.

Center for Public Integrity, Johns Hopkins terminates black lung program: This was a unit of the Johns Hopkins Hospital that, in collusion with coal companies, repeatedly failed to diagnose miners with black lung disease, preventing them from getting disability. Appears to be a result of an expose by the Center for Public Integrity and ABC News, Breathless and Burdened. Will heads roll?

Too Much online, The Real Secrets to Grand Fortune: Sam Pizzigati interviews Sam Wilkin, author of Wealth Secrets of the One Percent: A Modern Manual to Getting Marvelously, Obscenely Rich, which ingeniously parodies get-rich self-help books as a way of explaining how, via monopoly and intellectual property protection (among other tricks) the super-rich really got their wealth. I ordered the book.

New York Times editorial, Hiding Bad Policy in a Budget Bill. Mentions other bad things in the budget bill (besides the repeal of the push-out and the campaign finance atrocity), including budget cuts at the EPA and the IRS.

Speaking of “offending” the cops, here’s The New York Times‘ fail on this topic: New Twist in Lynch’s Confirmation After New York Grand Jury Decision, about how the confirmation hearings for nominee to replace Eric Holder will supposedly be complicated by the fact that she’s heading up the civil rights investigation of Eric Garner’s choking death. The Times tells us: “One Democratic official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is involved in advancing the nomination, said Ms. Lynch would have to carefully navigate community demands for action, in New York and Missouri, and the sensibilities of the law enforcement officers she would represent if confirmed to lead the Justice Department.” Come again? I guess maybe there’s some sense in which the Attorney General, the chief law enforcement official of the United States, “represents” law enforcement officers (though it makes more sense to think of her as their (future) boss); in the context of allegations of illegal police conduct (murder), this is a pretty outrageous framing. (I’ll pass over the usual outrage of the Times‘ use of anonymous sources (usually leakers trying to use the Times reporter to shape the story).

The Yves Smith piece, and various recent Bill Black pieces criticizing Dealbook and Andrew Ross Sorkin’s shameless coziness with his Wall Street funders and sources inspired me to check in to see whether the Times‘ Public Editor has had anything critical to say about Sorkin. I found that the current Public Editor, Margaret Sullivan, seems to be easy on Sorkin (she brought up criticisms people have had of his coziness with sources here, but instead of actually investigating and assessing the charges, she just gets a quote from Sorkin: “The criticism of him as an insider is, Mr. Sorkin says, ‘an old meme,’ and simply untrue.” Her predecessor, Arthur Brisbane, seems to have been harder on Sorkin, e.g., here.